A photo of one of the 55 statues of Charlie Brown that were made in celebration of the 55th aniversary of the Charlies Schulz comic strip, customized by local artists, then auctioned off. This statue that was bought by Bob Forsyth (CQ) for his restaurant Michele's in Santa Rosa. It was stolen! Photo by Ann Frowick

A photo of one of the 55 statues of Charlie Brown that were made in...

The victim is described as round-headed, seemingly bald, weighing about 300 pounds, and wearing a chef's hat.

He was last seen bolted to a concrete block, posing for pictures with kids outside Michele's Restaurant in Santa Rosa.

Right now, there happen to be 54 other, nearly identical Charlie Browns throughout Santa Rosa, but this statue-napping is particularly mean-spirited - - the sculpture belongs to the extended family of Peanuts creator and civic benefactor Charles Schulz.

"It's just so wrong," said Bob Forsyth, who owns both Michele's Restaurant and the 6-foot polyurethane Charlie-Brown-in-a-chef's-hat.

Forsyth's dad's sister is Jeannie Schulz, widow of Charles Schulz, the man whose drew the most popular comic strip in history, and who was known around town as Sparky. He lived and worked in the Santa Rosa area for 42 years.

Schulz died at the age of 77 from complications of cancer on Feb. 12, 2000, the day before his last Peanuts comic strip was published. Newspapers around the country, including The Chronicle, continue to run reprints of his old comic strips under the name Classic Peanuts.

The 55 prefab Charlie Brown look-alikes had been placed around Santa Rosa in the last two weeks, for a public art exhibition to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the Peanuts comic strip.

Each was manufactured by TivoliToo Inc., a Minneapolis design firm that produced a series of Peanuts characters for five consecutive years in neighboring St. Paul, Minn., where Schulz grew up above his father's barber shop. The show was called Peanuts on Parade, and it went almost without a hitch.

A few years ago, someone in St. Paul stole a Lucy but returned her unharmed.

"I'm offering a $2,500 reward. No questions asked," said Forsyth. "Just tell us where he is."

Like his 54 polyurethane companions, the missing Charlie Brown was customized from the TivoliToo original. This one was painted silver, given a Pillsbury Doughboy chef's hat, and held a spatula and spoon.

He has a little red heart painted on his chest.

"It hurts so much that someone who has benefited so much from Charles Schulz would have done something like this," said Forsyth, suggesting the thief is a resident of Santa Rosa, where Schulz was a generous civic benefactor.

Forsyth figures that it would have taken two strong men and a pickup truck to carry out the theft. The statue itself is worth $7,000, so it won't be funny if the pranksters are caught. In the eyes of the law, they are thieves.

This much is known to police: The culprits apparently made off with Charlie Brown between 1:30 and 2 a.m. on Saturday morning.

Forsyth said a disc jockey finished work and left at 1:15; a security guard left at 1:30. The statue was still there. At 2:05 a.m., bartenders clocked out and found that Charlie had gone missing.

Forsyth said everyone who calls the restaurant is outraged. He figures it could have been some after-prom hijinks or a fraternity prank, but if it was meant as a joke, the humor is lost on Peanuts fans.

"It's Charlie Brown, for God's sake," he said. "Why would anyone want to do this?"